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This document is a summary of a special issue in the journal "Social Sciences" that examines the concept of relational wellbeing among young refugees. The papers in the issue explore various dimensions of relational wellbeing and highlight the challenges and resilience of young refugees. The authors emphasize the importance of relationships and call for a relational approach in policy and resource distribution to better support the needs of young refugees. The document provides a culturally sensitive and respectful perspective on the lives of young refugees and aims to inform library patrons conducting research on this topic. [Extracted from the article]

In this paper, we consider how young refugees in the Drawing Together project experience integration in Scotland. We critically examine the term 'refugee integration' and emphasise its multiple dimensions. Specifically, we analyse Scotland's role as a country committed to the protection and care of young refugees by mapping some key Scottish legal, political, social and cultural policies and strategies that provide the contexts for refugee integration as a mutual endeavour based on hospitality and reciprocity. Finally, we show the ways young refugees talk of rebuilding a life in Scotland that feels coherent in relation to their past and present circumstances, and their future plans despite the challenges that they encounter in their everyday lives. We suggest that a 'relational wellbeing' approach to integration in Scotland is tangible. It confirms the importance of the practical and social opportunities available to young refugees as they resettle. This approach extends the meaning of integration beyond its political and social categories, to include young refugees' attachment to their faith of origin as well as the natural environment of Scotland. In all, we suggest that young refugees face the challenges and use the opportunities for integration in Scotland in ways that are of sustained benefit, for them as well as Scotland as their new country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers memories, mementos, and memorialization in stories by unaccompanied young people and their journeys within Europe. It looks at their 'navigation' of remembering and forgetting and how this intertwines with movement and stillness. It is based on a study about Afghan males aged 15–24 years in Norway and Greece. Participants differed in terms of their backgrounds, migration projects, and their legal status. In their various circumstances, their narratives point to how memories unfold, are shared, must be negotiated, and sometimes, forgotten as they navigate towards a sense of safety and a sustainable future. They also point to how mementos may take different forms while on the move, as traces along the migration trail that have the potential to become part of the memories of others who come across them. Finally, their narratives point to practices of memorialization, and how they too are intimately connected to remembering and forgetting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers how asylum-seeking girls in residential care in Finland construct their everyday lives while waiting for asylum outcomes. These girls, from various African countries, are shown to experience waiting as both debilitating and productive. First, our findings confirm the established picture of asylum-seeking young people being in limbo, unable to influence the resolution of their claims. Second, we explore more hopeful ways in which they wait. We emphasize the complex responses and relationships they build in waiting times with each other and their carers. We suggest that waiting is not just 'dead' time, but is also lively in periods of uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers what safety, belonging and success mean to children and young people who seek asylum alone within richer nations. These three elements are conceptualised, taking account of journeys away from their countries of origin towards a sense of 'home' in a new country. The conceptual map is then used to frame existing research to establish what is known, and what needs to be further examined in understanding the ways in which the three elements are manifest when permanent resettlement, temporary admission and enforced return are all possible outcomes of an asylum claim. The paper concludes that the state of knowledge is currently uncertain in relation to each element, with some good evidence of safety and belonging in the context of permanent resettlement and relatively poor understanding of success when children and young people are forced to return away from the country of asylum. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unaccompanied children and young people seeking sanctuary as political refugees are increasingly visible within many industrialized nations, where several studies confirm their vulnerability and needs. These studies also highlight what appears to be the poor quality of social work services and practices that these minors encounter. This paper examines some of the details contained in such reports of deficiency and seeks to place them within a more optimistic appraisal of social work practice. Based on a small research study, it suggests that resettlement for unaccompanied minors is complex and contains different types of loss as well as gain. It also asserts that practice by some social workers shows they have a grasp of this complexity as they offer practical assistance, therapeutic care and companionship to the young people to help them resettle in new environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]